Isn't that an appropriately named procedure -- GIFT? Of course you know it's an acronym. And wouldn't you know its real name leaves most of us in the dark: Gamete intrafallopian transfer.
Yeah, now that's romantic. Well, it might not sound romantic, but the gift of GIFT has allowed many couples to experience, ultimately, the gift of a biological child of their own.
This procedure resembles IVF very closely. But where IVF fertilizes a woman's egg outside of her body, this technique allows the egg to become fertilized in her fallopian tubes.
Let me explain. Both the male and female germ cells -- or gametes-- are injected into the woman's fallopian tubes specifically for fertilization. In a man, a gamete is the sperm. A woman's game is the eggs, or ova.
Specifically, health professionals stimulate the female eggs using various medications. Then they're collected using a process called aspiration. From here, three or four of the eggs are combined with no less than 200,000 sperm inside a catheter and then transferred inside the fallopian tubes of the woman using a surgical procedure called a laparoscopy.
GIFT is classified as a more invasive procedure than IVF because it does make use of the surgical procedure. It's most useful when ovulatory disorders or cervical problems lie at the core of the couple's infertility problem.
But it's also a very useful procedure if the male is experiencing a low sperm count.
You've probably already have guessed that the success of this procedure depends upon the health of the woman's fallopian tubes. If your tubes are blocked, this would not be the appropriate treatment.
But many females experiencing endometriosis find this to be successful for them.
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